Uncle dans leg wrote:Agreed and am relieved that he's finally shown some game. It seems as soon as I call a guy out he has a good game!

Perhaps Booth needs a few games to adjust to the new system and teammates?? So far, Booth only has one goal. However, his willingness to go to the dirty area, drive to the net, shoot the damn puck, and drop the gloves, are things that Raymond has failed to do.

Uncle dans leg wrote:I think MG envisioned a James Neal type of player but Booth doesn't appear to have much hockey sense or see the ice very well at all.

I love a good bit of irony as much as the next guy, but surely you are aware that the most James Neal type of player there is was traded last year and utterly failed to produce (5 points in 20 games) to expectations?

By comparison, Booth (4 points in 7 games as a Canuck) has been on fire..

As for writing his hockey sense off, I'd give Booth a bit more time to adjust before making assumptions about how well he sees the ice. After all, players adjusting to a new system and teammates often look out of place for fairly long stretches - just ask James Neal.

dbr wrote:As for writing his hockey sense off, I'd give Booth a bit more time to adjust before making assumptions about how well he sees the ice. After all, players adjusting to a new system and teammates often look out of place for fairly long stretches - just ask James Neal.

I'm a little surprised at the impatience surrounding the Booth deal, especially when we are seeing how well Higgins and Lapierre are playing after getting used to the new system.

Neither of these guys made an impact immediately and now that they know the system and have had a training camp with the team are performing quite well. James Neal is of course, as you mentioned, another great example of this.

Because Booth was dealt for early in the year hopefully he will find his way and learn the system after playing for a few months and getting some good practice time in with the team. Therefore becoming the payer we need him to be by the second half of the season.

Has anyone ever started a job with a new company? Even if it's in the same field or occupation as your old company it takes some getting used to, I would say at least 6 months to a year. Each company or team has their own modus operandi and even though and even though you may know the industry it takes time to acclimate yourself in order to perform your best.

Give the guy, or any new acquisition for that matter, some time and a bit of a break.

Booth with Kesler and Higgins is going to be a huge pain in the ass to play against when that line is clicking. They are all fast, tenacious and skilled and all roughly the same age entering their prime years. It will be a very good line in time, just cut the guy a bit of slack - especially while his centreman gets back up to game speed after surgery!

Uncle dans leg wrote:Okay I know I prematurely ejaculated again... It happens every time I get pissed about a player seemingly sucking!

Booth was never really sucking though.

Even prior to scoring his goal last night he was still working hard and getting a ton of chances.

Hes averaging over 3 shots a game and his shooting percentage is an unsustainable low 2.8%. There's just no way that a guy who is a 9% shooter through his career is going to suddenly drop to an almost league worst 3%, especially not a guy with a great shot like Booths.

He's made some defensive errors but nothing terribly alarming, so over all he really wasn't playing that poorly his stat line just looked terribly so people assumed the worst.

Honestly Pot I wouldn't consider most of his shots as top quality chances. I thought he was playing a not so inspired game and didn't appear to be in very good position generally, hence the P.E. on my part.

Now credit is due so last night he was where he needed to be and his stat sheet was quite indicative of this.

Uncle dans leg wrote:Agreed and am relieved that he's finally shown some game. It seems as soon as I call a guy out he has a good game!

Perhaps Booth needs a few games to adjust to the new system and teammates?? So far, Booth only has one goal. However, his willingness to go to the dirty area, drive to the net, shoot the damn puck, and drop the gloves, are things that Raymond has failed to do.

Booth is horrible fighter, that was embarrassing to watch. I would rank it on a similar scale of embarrassment as to when Semin of Washington was slapping that one dude like a girl having a major hissy fit. Booth should not fight cause he can't fight.

Also, why do the Booth Lovers constantly have to throw Raymond under the bus? Is just not in the cards having these two guys in the line-up at the same time to the Booth Man-crushers.

The bottom line, Booth's hockey sense leaves a lot to be desired. He's known around the league as possessing low Hockey IQ. Raymond has high IQ hockey sense, plays both ends of the rink very well and puck skills and ice vision, and anticipation are a load better than Booths.

Bottom-line, we should be talking more about Hodgsons work on Booths goal than Booth himself. Booth needing two whacks at the hot potatoe to get it in, but the superior vision and passing of Hodgson was what made it all happen.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate